Bernard Lagat Confirms He's Going for the American Record at 3k on Sunday

I'd like to see Rupp in this.

Rupp has pla

fklkjfj wrote:

I'd like to see Rupp in this.

Haven't you heard? Rupp has plateaued.

Hopefully Webb gets in this race, too- it would be a good one for him to try to get back into it.

2 x 3:45 1500's back to back? Impossible ... these days.

At least Lagat will take the lead and go for it. I think other American 1500 and 5k guys should enter as well. They should learn from Lagat.

If Lagat doesn't get it I think Solinsky will his next race.

It would be great to see Solinksi run this race with Lagat. CS should stick with BL as long as possible. BL would likley out sprint CS but I expect CS would do extremely well in the race.

This is disturbing. I have advocated to my brother that LetsRun.com change its motto on a daily basis.

I thought one of our mottos should be "we don't tweet."

I'm combining two threads into one and have pasted below four posts from another thread.

as well as

and finally

All but 4 or 5 of the field are Kenyan. Bad blood = dirty racing = no record?

This was supposed to be the year Bernard Lagat moved up to the 5,000. Which 5,000's has he run? Stockholm and USA's? Not much different than his normal schedule.

Like Steve Scott Legat seems to still have the competitive fire at the tail end of his career.

Nice lineup.

Some history:

This ISTAF meet was part of the original "Golden Four" (Oslo, Zürich Brüssel, Berlin). This was before the Golden League started in 98. Between 93-98 they had the Golden Four - where you ahd to win all 4 to share the 20kg gold jackpot. Colin Jackson, in '94, had 10kg all for himself (only 2 winners that year). 10kg worth about $432,755 now.

Way back in the 90s (1995? 1994?) the ISTAF organizers dolled out some serious appearance fees on a 5k with Tergat, Kiptanui (then 5k + 3k steeple WR holder), Dieter Baummann, Daniel "7:20" Komen, Bob Kennedy, Haile Geb, and a host of other studs. Probably the best field that had ever been assembled in a golden league meet.

Same meet in 1999, El G ran 4:44 for 2000m in 1999. Paced by, arguably, the best rabbit in our lifetime, William Tanui.

1. EL GUERROUJ, Hicham MAR WR 4:44.79

2. BITOK, Paul KEN 4:54.36

3. SILVA, Rui POR NR 4:54.66

4. KOSGEI, John KEN 4:55.52

5. LAGAT, Bernard KEN 4:55.58

6. SAIDI-SIEF, Ali ALG 4:56.87

7. MAYOCK, John GBR 4:58.57

8. STENZEL, Rüdiger GER 4:58.68

9. MAAZOUZI, Driss FRA 4:59.88

10. KOECH, Benson KEN 5:00.92

KIBET, Robert KEN dnf

TANUI, William KEN dnf

I heard Daniel Komen is entering this race as a comeback and looking for 7:19

joe9090 wrote:

Like Steve Scott Legat seems to still have the competitive fire at the tail end of his career.

And, like Scott, he can't let the 1500/mile go quietly into the night.

Indeed. That is official now, by the way, given his 13:07 in a race that went 12:55 (and where an American went 12:56 for 3rd place).

Maybe he just need to jack up the elevation in the altitude tent?

"Haven't you heard? Rupp has plateaued."

Lagat isn't the kind of guy who focuses on times very much. After he ran his 5K American Record, he said on Twitter that 12:54 was plenty fast for him and that he doesn't plan to try to go any faster. So the fact that he's been focusing on this record tells me that he really wants it and will put himself in a position to break it, maybe by multiple seconds. Then next year he will focus on WC instead of times. I hope the rabbits are good, because most of the other runners just got done running a fast 5K.

It should come down to Lagat against Tariku. He looked great in Zurich on Friday but Lagat looked in some shape last week easily handling everyone in a slow 3000. He seems ready to put a time on the board....